Hillbilly Music: Source & Symbol

The Hillbilly Music: Source and Symbol virtual exhibit is adapted from an original installation, part of a conference organized in April 2003 around the publication and celebration of discographer Guthrie T. Meade's Country Music Sources. The conference brought together chroniclers of country music, in recognition of the development of the music and its place in southern folklife. The materials used in the exhibit were arranged around a rough chronology outlined in Archie Green's "Hillbilly Music: Source and Symbol," a landmark article published in the Journal of American Folklore in 1965 and included in its entirety on this site. The contributions of Meade and Green, and other dedicated collectors, writers, and archivists, ensured the survival of a remarkable cultural legacy that continues to define the American artistic landscape in literature, film, and music.